Stay ConnectedDiscover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.
A weekly programme looking at common challenges around the world and the creative ways people are trying to tackle them.
Presenter Myra Anubi speaks to reporters, experts and innovators to investigate how effective different solutions are, share their successes and inspire listeners with what is possible.
Copyright: © (C) BBC 2022
People in many parts of the world are having fewer babies than they were 60 years ago, and that’s worrying some countries.
So in order to maintain the proportion of people of working age, governments have come up with campaigns to try to get people to have more children. Polish couples have been encouraged to “breed like bunnies” and speed dating events have been laid on for singles in Georgia.
Nicola Kelly visits Norway, which has tackled the issue in a different way, ensuring gender equality, healthcare and education make it attractive to have more than one child.
But as the global population grows, does the world really need more babies? We ask whether this just puts greater strain on the planet’s resources.
Presenter: Nick Holland Reporter/producer: Nicola Kelly
Image Credit: Getty Images
Do you ever wonder what happens to the people and projects we feature? This week we revisit innovators around the world to see how their schemes have developed. We catch up with the team catching junk in space, and the PODD disease detectives in Thailand tell us how they’ve successfully stopped the spread of infections. We also check in with the man who planned to give QR codes to homeless people so that passers-by can scan them with their mobile phones and donate money.
Presenters: Nick Holland, Elizabeth Davies Producer: Daniel Gordon
Image Caption: Satellite Image Credit: NASA
In 2009, Todd Bol built a small box in the shape of a school, filled it with books and placed it on his front lawn in Wisconsin, in the US. The book exchange soon became a focal point for the community. Now there are more than 75,000 Little Free Libraries in 88 countries across the world, including Sudan, Russia and the UK. They are open to everyone, they never close and have no paperwork or overdue fines. With the motto “Take a book, leave a book”, the aim is to bring people together and get more books into people’s homes. Reporter: Susila Silva Presenter: Tom Colls
Photo Caption: Little Free Library in Brighton Photo Credit: BBC
Many African countries face huge challenges in education. Millions of children completing primary school still struggle to read and teachers that should be in classrooms are routinely absent.
Two US entrepreneurs think they have a solution: a network of profit-driven low-cost private schools, called Bridge Academies, that can be created and staffed at lightning speed. Lessons are scripted by ‘master educators’, and teachers read them aloud, word for word, from e-readers.
Along with awards, the model has attracted a tidal wave of criticism from teaching unions, NGOs and governments too. World Hacks visits a Bridge Academy in Kenya to ask whether the controversial idea can work.
Presenter: Kat Hawkins Reporter: Sam Judah
Photo Credit: BBC
World Hacks visits a long, narrow street in the heart of the Dutch city of Eindhoven. A quarter of a mile long and lined with pubs and bars, Stratumseind is a drinking destination for the country’s young people and football fans. Unfortunately, the good times are frequently marred with violence. On any given Saturday night, police make about 20 arrests or detentions, many involving alcohol-related aggression.
Now the city authorities are using sophisticated technology to monitor the activities of the street, including cameras that can count people and microphones that can tell the difference between someone squealing with laughter and screaming in fright.
Stratumseind’s drinkers are also unwitting participants in a series of experiments to monitor whether subtle changes in their environment have an impact on their behaviour – whether that’s changing the colour of the street lights to calm people down or introducing a scent to help de-escalate tensions.
Producer: William Kremer
Photo Credit: City of Eindhoven, Living Lab Stratumseind
The idea behind “Buddy Benches”, also known as “friendship benches”, is simple. If a child feels lonely at playtime at school, they can go to the bench as a signal that they need someone to play with. Another child will see them, go and talk to them and include them in their games. However, a social enterprise in Ireland wants to do something more with them. Buddy Bench Ireland builds a day of workshops around the introduction of the benches, led by a team of child psychiatrists. Pupils are taught about empathy, how to look after their emotions and spot when others need support. The benches are seen as an early intervention to remove the stigma around mental health in Irish society.
Presenter: Tom Colls Reporter: Dougal Shaw
Photo Caption: Buddy Bench Photo Credit: BBC
What’s being done to clean up the shipping industry and make it less polluting?
Nick Holland looks at innovative ideas to make ships burn less fuel. The industry plays a critical role in the global economy. But it’s under pressure to decarbonise. Could giant rotating cylinders and millions of tiny bubbles be the answer?
Presenter: Kat Hawkins Producer: Nick Holland
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Around the world, thousands of people are using a special kind of bank. Instead of using it to save and spend money, they’re using it to save and spend time.
Based on the idea that everyone’s time is worth the same, time bankers exchange lawn mowing for childcare, and dog walking for graphic design.
World Hacks reporter Tom Colls enters the time economy and looks at the projects trying to upgrade time banking for the digital age.
Presenter: Nick Holland Reporter: Tom Colls
Photo Caption: Clock and piggy bank. Photo Credit: Getty Images
More than a quarter of Japan’s population is over 65 and the country has the highest rate of centenarians in the world. It’s a ticking demographic time bomb as the cost of caring for the elderly rises. But can the solution to this growing problem be found in Kashiwa City near Tokyo? A project there has been looking at how to redesign towns and cities to adapt to their residents as they reach old age. World Hacks asks whether the answers they have found could help ageing populations across the world. Producer: Harriet Noble (for BBC World Service)
Just over a year ago, Kenya introduced the world’s most draconian rules on single-use plastic bags. People can be fined up to $40,000 or even thrown in jail for producing, selling or using them.
World Hacks travels to Nairobi to find out what impact the ban has had, and asks why Kenya has taken such a seemingly progressive stance on plastic. We also speak to experts in the UK to find out why many governments prefer to ‘nudge’ their citizens into cutting back on plastic bags, instead of banning them.
Presenter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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